The number of computer applications used by large corporations has increased significantly over the past twenty years. For example, companies may employ separate applications for electronic mail, document control, financial applications, inventory management, manufacturing control and engineering functions, in addition to overall network access. Each application often requires a separate login procedure, including some form of personal identification such as a user ID, a password, a key sequence or biometric authentication. The increase in the number of applications requiring user authentication requires significant effort on part of the users of the applications to create, secure, and remember their authentication data. Furthermore, from a management perspective, the proliferation of computer applications with varying security and sign-on procedures adds significant cost to the ongoing maintenance of a secure information technology infrastructure.
The user faces similar login requirements when accessing server-based applications over the Web. For example, the user may face different login procedures (typically involving different passwords) to access bank accounts, brokerage accounts, subscription content sites, etc.
Indeed, the mere need for computer users to keep track of multiple logon names, passwords and PINs in order to access different information further increases the chances of unauthorized use and loss of private information. Users may resort to using the same logon name and password combinations for all accounts, rendering them equally vulnerable if unauthorized access to a single account is obtained. On the other hand, security-conscious users who maintain different logon names and passwords for individual accounts may, to avoid confusion, write them down where they may be found or store them on easily stolen devices such as personal digital assistants—thereby undermining their own efforts. Often those who routinely change their passwords but record them on paper or in a computer file are at greater risk of being compromised than those who use a single but difficult-to-crack password. At the very least, such security-conscious individuals risk forgetting their access information, necessitating time-consuming calls to customer-support lines. In some known systems, different applications may attempt to synchronize their login procedures and user credentials, but this is often limited to applications from particular suppliers and cannot be extended across varying technology platforms.
What is needed, therefore, is a method and system for facilitating the central management of user authentication, access, and usage that can easily accommodate the introduction of new computer applications into a large computing environment.